


Team Fortress 3: Beyond Starlight

by Divergent_Pathways



Category: Team Fortress 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:07:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22656757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Divergent_Pathways/pseuds/Divergent_Pathways
Summary: Note: This was written long before it's prequel, Team Fortress 3: Robot War . This may have a drop in quality, and several contradiction's with it's prequel. This may also be contradicted in future releases related to Team Fortress 3 and/or Divergent Pathways.In this story, your (least) favorite Mercenary Team goes to space after Aliens decide to strike.
Kudos: 1





	Team Fortress 3: Beyond Starlight

**1983, May 17th**

  
  


Charlie heard his alarm clock as he laid there still in bed.  _ Only the most annoying sound in the world. _ He rolls over and grabs his phone from the desk and turns off the alarm clock before looking at the roof for a minute. He groans. “ _ I need to change that damn thing to the GradeAUnderA voice. ‘Wake up you big nosed bastard!’” _ He chuckled. 

Charlie pushes the blankets off him and his feet touch the cold floor. He pushes himself off the bed and looks around the room. He looked at his calendar. May 17th, 1983. His Scout suit had been laying on the dresser, just like he left it last night. It was still torn apart from the Robot War. A reminder of who he’d lost.

Charlie grabs his backpack and stuffs it in. He dresses into a white shirt, black jeans and a black sweater before he puts his bag on his back and walks to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He walked downstairs and skipped breakfast and walked out the door to leave to school. 

He looks down the street. He turns to the roof of his house.  _ |  _ Charlie looks around for a few seconds before he takes the bag off his back.

Charlie jumped onto the building, fully dressed in the Scout suit he wore the night before. He stood on top of the building and look at the city. Charlie jumped off the building them dived waiting for the last second to fire off a glue rope and fly an entire mile then do the same multiple times until he was close enough to the school to take off the red jacket and bandana, black shirt, pants, and fingerless glove and change back into the clothes he was wearing before and walked towards school.

He spent the next few hours in class then went into the restroom when he would normally just leave after school. Charlie dressed into the Scout suit he’d worn earlier that morning and crawled into the vent. After a few minutes of crawling around a dusty air vent, he found himself on the roof of the building. There were still a few cars, but everybody had mostly been gone. Charlie raised the bandana over his face then started running. He leaped off the side of the building and swang from a tree as he went towards the rest of Starlight City.

Once he got there, he jumped onto the side of one and ran along it and jumped off, diving down into the traffic before firing off another rope sending him flying into the air. He landed on a roof and stopped for a moment, as night had already struck. He stopped and took a breath. “Man, I would love to see this city from the highest angle. Hell, maybe I could take a picture from there, but the only question is  _ where _ would that be?”

He looked around until he saw it. Mann Co, the tallest building in Starlight City. From there, anybody could get a view of the entire city. Charlie leaped from the building once again and went to his destination, making sure to keep his elemental necklace in his pocket to keep it from falling off. He’d never lost it before, but he could only imagine what would happen if he had, knowing what it could do.

“So, you’re working on a Spaceship?” Colton asks. “Why are you throwing money around like this?”

“You never know when we’ll be attacked by aliens or one of us gets stranded in space somehow.” Ian responds. “Once that happens, you’ll be thanking me for making this fucking thing.”

“Sure, alright.” Colton says. “You keep working on that, I’m gonna call Charlie down here.”

“What? Is it about that necklace he found in a cave, like fucking, last year?” Ian asks. “I have no idea what it is about that thing, but I think that thing is fucking haunted.”

“No, just sentient.” Colton answers.

Ian burst out laughing for a few seconds while Colton sits there straight faced. Ian looks at him. “You’re serious? That fucking thing is sentient?”

“Yeah, all the elemental necklaces are.” Colton responds. “Charlie’s Lightning Necklace, Kira’s Deception Necklace, they all are.” He yawns. “I haven’t slept in the past month, do you have any goddamn idea how fucking sleep deprived I am? But still, it doesn’t take sleep to tell that Charlie’s been distant, avoiding us.”

“Shit man, go take a nap.” Ian says. “How are you even alive? I thought people die from eleven days of sleep deprivation.”

Colton leans in closely. “ **It takes- You don’t die from sleep deprivation. Every second is fucking agony right now.** Anyway, I might have Dannielle talk to him later.”

“Well, go take care of this Charlie situation then take a shower, you look like a fucking zombie.”

“I’d rather not, I’m scared.”

“You fought a robot army with us as your only defense, and you’re scared of  _ water _ ?”

“No, I’m scared I’ll fall asleep in the shower.”

Danielle walks into the room. “Colton, where are the tangerine- Holy shit, when was the last time you slept and when was the last time you took a shower, you look like a zombie and you smell worse than the rotting body in the robot in the back room, and that thing is literally incapable of continuing it’s decomposure and it’s nothing but bones and rotting flesh.”

“I’m too tired to even think about whether ‘decomposure’ is even a word or not.” He turns to Ian. “I’m gonna go take a shower then a nap, call Charlie about the necklace, I’ll see you in the morning.” Colton turns away and leaves.

Danielle looks at Ian. “So uh… You know where the oranges are?” She asks.

“We’re out.” Ian says. “I’d ask your brother to get them but he’s in no condition to be even walking, considering how long it’s been since he slept.”

“Well, Charlie’s out right now, right? Can you ask him to get them?”

Ian grabs his phone. “Well, I was about to make a phone call to him anyway so I guess it couldn’t be too much to ask for some oranges.”

“Thanks.” She leaves the room too.

Charlie sat on the building and watched the lights from cars move along the streets as the motionless yellow street lights sat still and blue lights from the buildings did the same. Charlie took his phone from his pocket and snapped a quick picture. He sighed. It was been sights like this he’d loved Starlight for. Sitting on top of a tall building and watching in silence as everything moved past, not having to worry about the safety of anybody. His phone rang and he answered. “Hello?”

“Hey Charlie, Colton told me to tell you that your necklace is sentient.” Ian says.

“You’re kiddin’, right?” Charlie asks.

“Nope, that motherfucker is alive. Oh, and Danielle wants you to get some tangerines.”

Charlie laughs. “That’s an interesting thing to follow up with after having just told someone that their necklace that can literally send a shockwave of electricity out is alive.”

“Well, that’s all I had to say. I also dare you to put a red streak in your hair.” Ian responds. 

“Why red? I like blue much more.”

“We’re on the red team, that’s why I say red.”

Charlie nods. “It’ll be done by tomorrow.”

“Alright.” Ian says. “So uh… See you later, I guess.”

“See ya’ later, man.” Charlie says. He hangs up the phone and puts it back in his bag. He puts it on his bag and stands up. He yawns. “Christ, what time is it?” He checks his phone again after pulling out his bag. “2:27 A.M. Christ, I need to get those oranges then go to fucking sleep.” Charlie steps off the building and dives once more for the night.

Charlie walks into the abandoned school which they used as their base. He sighed and kept walking to the old teacher’s lounge, which they used to keep their food. When the group had found the area, everything was rusted over, knocked over or had graffiti all over it. Now, it looked like a large home. Charlie always wondered how much was spent making the place but never cared to ask questions.

Charlie walked over to the teacher's lounge, which Ian had managed to repurpose into a kitchen, and took the oranges out of his bag.  _ Why the hell do we keep food in the same place as the Spy’s head?  _ Charlie sat the oranges down inside then looked at the head.

“Kill me.” He said.

“I’m pretty sure if the German medic you used to belong to wouldn’t do it, none of us will either.” Charlie says. “Not that we don’t have the time, we just don’t care, if I’m honest.” Charlie closes his bag. “How the hell are you even alive?”

“I’ll tell you if you kill me.” He responds.

“I may be a kid, but I’m not tricked so easily.” Charlie says. “Almost two thousand years of constant human evolution for you to be nothin’ but a head stuck in a goddamn refrigerator. I’ll be honest, I feel sorry for ya’.” Charlie closes the fridge and holds the bag in his hand.

“Who were you talking to?” He hears Danielle ask.

Charlie turns around. “Head.”

“Alright.” Danielle walks over to the fridge as Charlie walks past her. Danielle puts her hand on the fridge. “I miss my parents.” She says.

“Good, only means you’re more of a human than I am.” He walks away without saying another word. Danielle takes out a pack of tangerines and a bottle of beer. She sets the tangerines back down and walks back to her room with the beer.

Danielle laid in her room, asleep. The room was dark and quiet. A green light shined through the windows and Danielle slowly woke up. She rubbed her eyes and groaned. “What the hell?” She checks the digital clock next to her bed. “3:34?” She rolled over and moved one of the blinds to check outside the window. “What the fuck is that?” Outside the window, she could see only what she could assume was a U.F.O. Danielle jumped out of bed and grabbed her suit off the counter and dressed into it as she ran to Colton’s room.

Danielle now wore a black backpack, bright red silk jacket without sleeves, and with a black hood, a white short sleeve shirt underneath, black pants, grey boots and black gloves. Her hair was brown, brushed, and went down to her shoulders. Her eyes were orange while she wore the Fire Necklace, and her skin was white.

Once she got to Colton’s door, he opened the door already dressed in his, a white medical jacket with a red shirt under it with dark red pants and black boots. “I know what’s out there.” He says. “I’ll call the rest of the team, Ian never went home today, you should find him in his room, go.”

“Alright.” Danielle says. She runs down into the old kitchen, which was Fortress Frontline’s gun storage room and grabbed her grenade launcher, a sticky bomb launcher, sword, and holsters, putting them all on. Once she got done, Ian stepped in, already dressed in his black pants, black jacket, red shirt and bandana, and white gloves.

“So you saw it too?” He asks.

“Yeah, I saw that shit, and we’re being invaded.” Danielle says.

Ian grabs his shotgun. “Yeah, no shit.” Ian grabs his pistol and wrench. “I’m not sure the micro tech I used for the sentry gun will cut it this time.”

“It did when we took back Mann Co last year.” Danielle says.

“It’s aliens this time.” Ian says. He walks over to a desk and opens a drawer. “This is something I’ve been working on since I left Mann Co and joined this team.” He pulls out a cube and tosses it up into the air. As it comes back down, he smacks it with his wrist and it starts forming around his body. “A while back, I got the idea for an Ironman like suit.” Ian says. “I might as well be Iron Man because this motherfucker is made purely out of iron.”

The hands of it were white and the arms were red, the face was fully exposed, since after the robots first invaded last year, there was no reason for them to try to hide their identities anymore. There was a silver streak of metal down the side of Ian’s face which gave a holographic blue in front of his left eye. The torso was red in the front, being silver on the sides and black on the legs. “This bitch is ready for war.”

“Let’s see what you’ve got, Ian.” Danielle steps out of the room. Colton rushes over.

“Hey, I called the rest of the team,” He says. “They’re all up, let me get my stuff real quick.”

A few minutes later, the group was in the van.

“Shit, we need to find Charlie.” Danielle says. 

“We need the whole team!” Colton says. “I told the whole team to meet up at Mann Co, Saxton Hale told me that the aliens haven’t got there yet so if we can get there and set up defenses, we’ll be fine.”

“Good to know since everybody in this van specializes in defense.” Danielle responds.

Colton stops the car. “Get out, we’re here.”

Ian leans over and opens the door and runs out, throwing a cube forming into a sentry, then a dispenser. “Come on Danielle, get some stickies down, we’re about to have a whole damn army on the three of us.”

“If Jason and Jessica could do it, not even half as powerful as us, we can too.” Danielle puts sticky bombs down on the ground and grabs the grenade launcher.

“I’m ready.” Colton says. “What about you two?”

The iron suit forms over Ian’s body. “I’m ready.” 

Colton nods as Danielle does. “Alright.”

Charlie kicks the door open, already dressed in the Scout suit and looks around as people in the neighborhood were shot with green lasers.  _ Okay, those look to travel around as fast as a normal bullet and look like they hurt about as the same. _ Charlie checks his phone.  _ Missed voicemail. I need to defend the neighborhood before I can check it. _ Charlie jumped on the wall to his house and jumped off and swung from the street lights and landed with a punch to the ground creating an electric shockwave. Charlie swung at an alien with an axe made of electricity that formed mid-swing.

Charlie stepped back quickly dodging a laser and fired a blast of electricity back at the alien who tried shooting him. He felt something run down his nose.  _ Nosebleed? First world problem for an alien invasion.  _ He jumped out in front of an alien and formed a sword through him. 

“God!” He yells out as he jumps from a car and beheads one. “You’re like every person I’ve ever seen!” He takes the axe and smashes it into the ground creating another shockwave. “Shitty aim, shitty guns!” He jumps into the air and does a spin then kicks one across the street. “Christ, you’re skinnier than Jessica, and she’s damn near anorexic…”

Charlie gripped his forehead as he lost his balance and fell onto a car, holding a hand to its side. “ _ Christ, my head… _ ” He felt a hand touch his shoulder and he turned around.

Kira stood there dressed in her same damaged suit. “Tone it down with the necklace.” She said as she took her revolver from her leg.

Charlie took the shotgun from his bag and got behind the car with Kira. “Where do we meet Colton?” He asked.

“I don’t know, he told me to ask you that over some fucking voicemail.”

“Shit.” Charlie says. “I was gonna check that when the neighborhood was cleared out.”

Kira looks out from behind the car. “Well, don’t stop now.” She checks for her knife and necklace. “Also, don’t abuse the necklace, it’ll only cause problems.”

Charlie nods. “I can tell.” He runs out from behind the car, using double jump to get onto a street light and used the glue ropes to jump along them. He jumps off taking the baseball bat from his bag and hits one right before he lands and takes the shotgun off his back again.

Kira jumps onto one and stabs them in the neck. After she does, the alien grabs her arm and throws her before taking the knife out. “Neckstabs won’t work on these things!”

Charlie jumps onto a car and shoots the one that threw her. “How about you try a backstab?”

Kira runs over and grabs her knife before cloaking again.

Charlie jumps onto another street light and jumped down in front of one. He grabbed their gun and threw it behind him.

“ Vozmozhno, Zemlya ne budet takoy legkoy tsel'yu, yesli rebenok mozhet i khochet ispol'zovat' silu, kotoruyu vy pokazali. ”

“ Itak, prishel'tsy prishli na zemlyu, kotoraya nakhoditsya za sotni kilometrov, i oni govoryat po-russki? udivitel'nyy .” Charlie sighs and looks behind him. “Just want to tell you, don’t fucking turn around.”

The alien drops to the ground after Kira pulls a knife out of his back. “Those things speak Russian?”

Charlie grabs his phone from his bag. “Surprisingly, yes.” He checks voicemails. “Let’s see what Colton said, shall we?”

Charlie presses play on it.

“ _ Charlie. _ ” It starts. “ _ I have no idea where you are but you can’t stay, it may sound surprising but aliens, they’re real, and they’re invading the city. _ ”

Charlie laughs for a second. “Yeah, no shit.”

“ _ We’re telling everyone to meet at Mann Co, if plans change, I’ll let you know but for now, get there as fast as possible, I’ve got Brain bringing the helicopter to the top of the building.” _

Charlie sighs. “As if that’ll do jack shit.”

“What do you mean?” Kira asks.

“Simple, I tried fighting your sister, Olivia up there, sometime before the whole fuckin’ robots came, and trust me, a building is not what you want to fight on.”

“I killed her on a building.” Kira responds.

“By stabbing yourself with a sword made by my necklace.” Charlie says. “You shouldn’t even be alive after that.”

“I wouldn’t have if you weren’t there.” Kira looks over her as something flies over the neighborhood. “Shit, come on, let’s go.”

_ Everyone walked backward slowly realizing they were cornered in a cirlce formation as they reloaded their weapons and the robots didn’t fire.  _

_ “This isn’t how I was expecting to die…” Danielle says. “Trapped in a circle surrounded by robots with seven other kids, all of us holding guns.” _

Olivia’s controlling them. _ Kira thought. _

_ Ian cocks the shotgun. “If we’re gonna die…”  _

_ Brain loads an arrow into his bow. “We’re not going to be forgotten.” _

_ Everybody started shooting at the robots trying to constantly dodge any bullets or rockets coming their direction. _

_ “Couldn’t have said it better, Brain! Couldn’t have said it fuckin’ better!” Charlie yelled out with a wide smile on his face. _

_ Kira looked over the small hill that led to a building, mostly used for dispensers and sniper sightlines. “Shit, big robot!” _

_ Everybody turns to where Kira was looking to see a tall robot soldier. Charlie fired a glue rope at its face blocking its vision. Kira reached into her jacket’s pocket and threw a sapper at it which slowed the robot and stunned all robots around it. _

_ Ethan hits it with a crowbar during his fall after doing a rocket jump before taking his shotgun and doing the same knowing each bullet would hit the wide, tall machinery. _

_ Colton put the medigun on Zachary and uber charged him as he ran to the robot. Zach fired off a flare that hit the robot as Brian fired an arrow at its leg and Charlie jumped off the building attaching a rope of glue from it’s hand to the ground. _

_ Zach got over and started using his flamethrower and Danielle jumped off the blast of the sticky bombs and shoved her sword into its chest. _

_ The robot dropped to its knees and smacked Danielle knocking her down. Kira climbed onto his back and shoved the knife in while the robot took the glue off its face. _

_ Colton jumped off and stabbed it in the eye. Charlie ran over and did a flip kicking the robot while he ascended and in his decent, fired a glue rope and knocked its head into the ground. _

_ Zachary finished it off, with its head in the snow, he did one swing with his fire axe and beheaded it. _

_ Kira threw another sapper at the large crowd of robots that had followed it. “Hunter! Hunter!” She screamed as another scream was heard. Everyone turned to her as the hunter robot jumped again and landed on her. Before it could do any actual damage, Danielle stabbed it with her sword and pushed it off Kira before reaching her hand out to her. “Off your ass and on your feet, you little slut!” _

_ “You still call me that?” Kira asks. _

_ “Shit, we’re running low on ammo!” Charlie yells out. _

_ “I’ve already run out!” Daniele yells back. _

_ “There’s no running now!” Colton yells. “Get to the dispenser and get some more ammo!” _

_ Danielle jumps over the fence then checks the dispenser. _

_ Charlie reaches for his knife pouch and pulls out another knife throwing it at another robot _ . “Where the hell is Brian!?” He yells out.

“He’ll be here soon, just hold on!” Colton answers.

Charlie puts his hand behind him as blue emanates from it he raises his hand.

As he does, and electric axe forms from it and Charlie smashes it into the ground. All the power that had come from the shockwaves before had been channeled directly in front of him, incinerating anybody that touched it.

Ethan flies by Charlie and kills one with a crowbar. “I don’t think these fuckin’ things came from space!” He yells. “Mann Co studied aliens, I don’t remember them looking like this!”

“Evolution, kid!” Danielle responds.

“I think Black Mesa did this.”

“Black Mesa!?” Charlie asks. “Bitch, Black Mesa barely has running water, hell, they couldn’t even afford a sweaty bear suit!”

“Brian’s almost here!” Ethan yells out. “We need to get to the roof of the building!”

“I can hold them, just go!” Ian yells out. “I’ll meet you on the roof!”

“How!?” Danielle asks.

“This suit has goddamn thrusters on it, just go!”

“Come on!” Charlie yells. He turns to the elevator and it had already been destroyed. “Guess you’re taking the stairs!” He gloats. “I just gotta run!” Charlie ran into the elevator and jumped to the ceiling kicking the vent cover off. He fired off two glue ropes and slingshot himself upward onto the wall and starts running up it rather than along it.

Charlie jumps off from the wall and through the broken elevator doors which could no longer close, sliding a few feet on the ground before he stopped. He got up and walked over to the window.

Most of the lights in the building had been broken and Charlie could see outside perfectly. Buildings were falling, people were running, cars were abandoned, and buildings had been on fire too. “ _ Christ… _ ” He kept staring at it and took the necklace off his neck, stuffing it into his pocket. The bright blue of his eyes drifted away revealing there was no actual color there, to begin with. “ _ To think I wanted to do this when Sara died. _ ”

He pressed a hand on the glass as his bag slid down his arm. He got down and opened it and took out a photo. Him with a blond haired, blue eyed girl on her 5th birthday. He sighed. “ _ I’m trying to make you proud. _ ” He leans against the windows for a minute and closes his eyes.

_ ‘Help!’ He tried screaming. ‘Someone help, I’m stuck, I can’t move!’ He could only say the words in his head as his vocal cords had been torn apart, and metal pierced every limb of his body, except his head. His clothes and the suit he was locked in was stained with his blood. _

_ Charlie heard the door open through the wide eyes of the suit as someone walled in dragging something. He tried calling for help once more as whatever was being dragged had been sat against the wall. “H.. He…” Was all he could say. _

_ He tried lifting his arm but the suit’s arm was longer and with the metal piercing his body, it was excruciating to do.  _ Come on… _ He lifted his arm. If he could, he would’ve screamed. He was losing blood by the second and he could feel his heart pumping faster as the ringing in his ears got louder.  _

_ The person in the room walk closer to him then heard the kid sigh. “I’m sorry, Charlie.” He then turned to the door and walked away, leaving Charlie to sit there helplessly and bleed out. _

_ From when the kid was standing there, Charlie could see his vision blurring. The little light that was in the room, he could only make out the bloodstained blond girl hair of the person who was dragged. His vision kept fading until it was only darkness. _

_ Charlie looked like he woke up in the place he’d died in. The place Sara was having her birthday. Charlie ran over to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. He kicked it as his eyes filled with tears as he tried harder to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. Charlie sat against the wall and cried for, to him, was what felt like an eternity. _

_ After a while, he fell asleep. Later, he woke up in a red room.  _ What the hell?  _ He thought. _

_ “Welcome, Charlie.” Someone in a desk said. _

_ “Oh, Christ.” Charlie said. “You’re… Satan.” _

_ “I am. And you’re dead.” He responded. _

_ “Okay, why am I in hell?” Charlie asked. “I haven’t done anything wrong.” _

_ “Well, God, as you mortals call him, his actual name is Chessmaster, can see the future.” Satan explained. “You’re not held from Heaven because if what you have done, but because of what you will do.” Charlie nodded, understanding. “That and Heaven is at war right now.” _

_ “Hold up.” Charlie said. “Heaven is at war?” _

_ “So is hell. Pretty much, everywhere is at war.” Satan looked at his desk for a second. “Well, Earth isn’t. Yet.” _

_ “I want-” _

_ “To go back. Chessmaster told me everything that would happen. You, mortals, refer to us as enemies, but we’re pretty good friends.” _

_ “I did-” _

_ “-N’t think either of us existed. I know, you’re an atheist. Or, were. Look, if you want to go back, I need a soul, which I know you have.” _

_ “What about Sara and Dallas?” Charlie asked. _

_ “Simple. Sara sold her soul to me for a chicken nugget and Dallas is fighting in the war in Heaven.” _

_ “God knows I would’ve sold my soul for a chicken nugget. School is communism. We starve together.” _

_ “Indeed it is.” Satan opened the desk and took out a paper. “Alright, Charlie Kilo Franklin, I need you to sign this paper giving me your soul. Once you do, you’ll come back to life and be given immortality for five minutes so you can get out of the dog suit.” _

_ “ _ **_I was in a dog suit?_ ** _ ” _

_ “Sign the paper. Just know, sometime in May 1983, you’ll have to kill the rest of your team. You’ll know what I mean when it happens. I’ll tell you when your time has come.” _

_ “Alright.” Charlie walks over and signs the paper with his first, middle, and last name. _

_ “Okay, thank you, bye bye, see you in 1992.” _

_ Charlie woke up, back in the suit, his vocal cords fixed. “Okay, what do I do, what do I do?” The metal only names in from the backside of the suit in the arm and leg sections, while the torso came in from the front. Charlie moved his arms forward, feeling each painful movement as the metal of the suit slowly exited his arms. _

_ He moved them into the torso and grabbed the metal rib cage that had gone through his chest. Charlie pushed it away from him feeling the metal move through him. Once it was done, Charlie grabbed a broken piece of metal and cut through the back of the suit making more room for him. He started undoing his legs before he crawled out of the suit. _

“Charlie.” Colton said.

“Oh, hey.” Charlie quickly put the photo back in his bag. “You ready?”

“Brian’s got the helicopter on the roof. We’re leaving now.”

“Got it.” Charlie grabbed his bag and got up. The rest of the group had already started walking up the stairs so Charlie and Colton followed.

When they got up, Brain was firing arrows down at the group. “Get on!” He yelled out. 

Colton pressed his earpiece. “Ian, get up here.” He got on the helicopter and so did everyone else as they saw Ian fly up. “They have no rocket launchers, we’ll be fine getting away, the lasers are the exact same things as a bullet.”

Colton gets into the pilot seat and Brian stands next to him. “Where are we going!?”

“Back to the Canida base.”

“The Canida base? Last time we were there-”

“Yes, I know, I train, robots, and police. Get your sniper, we need to kill as many as we can as we leave.”

Brian nods before he runs to the other side of the helicopter. Ian had his sentry gun wrangled and shooting beyond where it’s sensors went while Charlie was using one of the mounted machine guns, Danielle sat on the other as her grenades would explode before they could even touch a building, and Ethan was blindly firing rockets.

Brian grabbed his sniper rifle from the wall and started hitting shots on UFO’s, incoming rockets, and far away enemies.

“These genderless aliens can’t do jack shit to us!” Charlie yelled out. Brian misses a shot on a rocket that everyone knew would hit. “God fuckin’ damn it.”

The helicopter gets hit and Brian drops the sniper rifle as he almost falls out of the helicopter, holding onto the side of it. Charlie grabs his hand. “I’ve got you!” Charlie starts pulling Brian back up into the helicopter.

Colton walks over to everyone else. “We’re crashing, we’re going to land next to a building, you need to jump onto it before we crash.”

“Just like we were trained to do!” Danielle yells.

As the helicopter nears the building, everyone jumps out, Ethan being caught by Zachary.

“Christ, we’re stuck in this damn city with no way out.” Charlie says.

“What if we found Pauling and Hale?” Kira asks.

“Maybe Hale’s at Mann Co.” Ethan chimed in.

Colton shakes his head. “No, if he was there, we would’ve seen him when  _ we _ were there.”

Charlie looks around. “Okay, I’m going to look for my house owner, you two find Hale and Pauling.”

“Your house owner? Why?” 

“He was a Demoman a few years back, I paid him with eyeballs when I didn’t have any cash.  _ I still do to this very day. _ ”

“Alright, Charlie, how about this, you find them, and we’ll evacuate the city.” Colton says. “We’ll meet back at the school base when we’re done.”

Charlie nods. “Got it.” He reloads his glue shooters and jumps off the building.

Colton turns to the rest of the group. “We better find our way off these buildings, because god knows how unlucky we are and there’s bound to be an alien version of those godforsaken hunters.”

“Oh, Christ.” Brian says. “Not the hunters.  _ Not the goddamn hunters. _ ”

After a while of swinging, Charlie flies onto the Mann Co roof and looks at the city, now being shot at. “Christ, as if that cursed Robot Invasion wasn’t enough.” He looks around then pulls his phone out. “Alright, I know I have Pauling’s number somewhere on this thing.” He scrolls through his contacts until he sees a name that he’d forgotten not to long ago. “Oh god... Oh god no.”

He looks up from his phone then at Starlight’s neighborhoods. “Madeline!” He dived from the building hoping to gain as much speed as possible when he almost hits the ground at full speed.

_ Charlie pushes the window upward knowing that Madeline would be okay with it and it would be the last time he’d do it. He doubted that she would be home but he hadn’t seen her anywhere in the evacuation. “ _ Alright… _ ” He sighs. “Madeline!” He yells out to no response. He sighs then tries again. “Madeline!” He heard a door open across the house. _

_ He quickly ran over and she did too, hugging him tightly before he said anything. “Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re okay.” _

_ “Of course I am, I’ve been at this job since 1980.” Charlie took her arms off him. “Look, there’s something I need to tell you.” _

_ “I know, dad died. It was all over the news.” She looks behind her. “After you all… Took off the mask.” _

_ Charlie shakes his head. “No, that’s not it.” He sighs. “Earlier today, Audric died, and he joined this team because of me. I can’t keep doing this.” He grabbed her hand. “Tonight, I learned, anybody involved with me, Colton, or anybody on the team is in danger.” He lets go then starts walking away. _

_ “Wait, where are you going?” _

_ Charlie sits on the window sill then turns to her. “We’re better off alone.” _

The streets were flooded with civilians running from the aliens. Colton ran away from where they were with the rest of the team following and deployed a projectile shield. “Come on, get behind me, get behind me!”

Brian took an explosive arrow out and shot it at the aliens, killing multiple of them. Kira stabs one in the back, drawing her revolver to divert attention from Danielle who was making a flank using window sills and fire escapes. Kira jumps behind a car and presses on her earpiece. “Draw attention away from Danielle!”

Ethan falls from the sky dropping rockets onto the area and lands with a crowbar swing and knocks one’s head off.

“Just like Tenis!” He yells.

Colton ubers Ethan. “Kira, Ian, Danielle, get the civilians out of the city, we’ll send Charlie to help when he shows up!”

Danielle fires sticky bombs onto the ground. “Got it!” She jumps down leaving her sword in the air as she ran through the ground cutting through every alien that stood in her path. “They’re malnourished, or- I don’t know, there’s very fragile, just know that, guys!” Danielle detonates the rest of the sticky bombs killing more than she expected.

Zachary picks a gas can from the trunk of a car. “Someone, shoot the fucking gas can!” He tosses it into the air and Ethan shoots it with a shotgun, and it explodes dropping fire down onto all the aliens. “Come on, we got them pinned down!”

Charlie tries pushing the window up but it doesn’t open. He already tried the front door and sighed. “Fuck it.” He elbowed the window and crawled into the vacant room.

“Madeline!” He yelled out. There was no response. “Christ, it’s February all over again.” He walks through the house and finds the back door left open. Broken glass was scattered across the ground and the concrete stopping right before the grass. Small drops of blood made a trail. “Alright, you wanted to be Batman, right, Charlie?” He sighed. “Now's your time.”

Charlie ran to the fence and climbed over and continued to follow the blood trail until he heard groaning around the corner. “Madeline?”

“Charlie?” She asked. Her arm has an untreated, fresh cut with blood leaking down her arm. “What the hell is going on?”

“Boy, I dunno, we can’t possibly be in the midst of a goddamn alien invasion, that’s just not possible and science fiction.”

“Yeah, I get it, smart-ass.” Madeline responds. “Alright, I’m guessing we’re both trying to get out of the city, aren’t we?”

“Yep.” Charlie says. “Though the rest of the team won’t leave without Pauling, and neither will I. She handles our jobs, she was here  _ before _ we were, we  _ can’t  _ leave without her.”

“Anybody else you’re looking for?”

“My house owner and Saxton Hale.” Charlie says. He turns around checking his back. “He may be a naked, black Scottish guy who has me pay him with eyeballs but he used to work for the TeuFort Nine.”

“What about Hale?”

“You have no idea how hard that Australian punches, do you? That bastard fuckin’ killed me before.”

“Wait, you said you died in a spring lock suit.”

“Never said that was the  _ only _ time I died. Now, come on, we need to find-”

“Charlie!” A familiar voice calls out. 

Charlie turns around and sees him. “Oh, hey, Tavish.”

This time, he was fully clothed. “I have a question I need to ask you, boy-o.”

“Tav, can we not right now? You’re not drunk, we really are being invaded.” Charlie looked at the bottle that he held. “Well, you  _ might _ be drunk, but yes, we are being invaded.”

“Ah, no, I have a stockpile of empty bottles.”

Charlie looked at him with a weird look on his face. “ _ Why? _ ” Charlie sighed. “Don’t answer, we need to find Pauling.”

“Hopefully, she doesn’t try to kill meh.”

“Christ, let it go, that was a little over a decade ago by now.” Charlie starts walking away and Tavish follows. Charlie turns back. “Madeline, you comin’?”

She looks at the destruction around her. “Guess I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“Well, you do. That choice being a fight you have a negative five percent chance of winning.”

“Alright, I’m coming, just don’t go too fast.”

“Yes, I know, you have asthma.”

_ “So, you want this house, eh?” _

_ Charlie nods. “Yeah but I uh… I don’t have any cash at the moment.” _

_ “When  _ can _ you get cash?” _

_ “I’m not sure, my friend hired me to be a mercenary recentl-” _

_ “Mercenary? Here, how about this, you bring me a pair of eyeballs from every person you kill at the end of each month and you keep the house.” _

_ Charlie nods. “Yeah, I guess that works.” _

_ “Alright lad, see ye’ at the end of the month.” _

_ “See ya’ then...” _

_ “Tavish.” He says. “Me name is Tavish.” _

_ “See ya’ then, Tavish.”  _

_ “Oh, and before I go, lad.” Tavish takes a grenade launcher and sticky bomb launcher out of his trunk. “If ye’re like I was, someone you know will need dis.” _

_ Charlie takes them. “I’ll be sure to give these to them.” _

Charlie called again. “Christ, why won’t she pick up?” Charlie got a phone call on his phone after having made several and answered. “Hello?”

“Charlie, Saxton’s down with us right now!” Danielle said.

“Alright, that’s just one more for me to find.”

“Colton said that her phone tracker is near our base right now!”

“Alright, I’ll send Tavish your way.”

“Who!?”

“You’ll figure out when he gets there.” Charlie hangs up. “You still got your Eyelander?”

Tavish takes the sentient sword off his back. “Always.”

“Get moving, Tav, I’ll meet up with you when I get there.” Charlie turns to Madeline. “You’re coming with me.”

She sighs. “You lead the way.”

Colton deploys another projectile shield as the group that was with him hides behind it. “We need to keep moving forward, don’t let them push us back!”

Brian fires an arrow from behind the shield, that lit on fire from a flair that brushed against it and exploded once it hit an alien.

“What the hell do we call these!? Combine? Xenomorphs!?” Ethan yelled out. 

“Let’s just stick with the term Aliens, I don’t want us getting sued by VALVe!” Colton responded. He puts the medigun on Ethan and ubers him once more. “Go, go, go!”

Danielle jumped on an alien and cut through them like paper as Ian turned around. “You’re welcome, Dickcheese!”

“Christ.” Two singular turrets form on both of Ian’s wrist as he held them up towards the group of swarming aliens.

Saxton Hale picked a car off the ground and threw it half a mile away from him landing in front of the group Ian had been shooting at. “Shoot the car, kid!”

Ian fired a single missile at the car and it exploded. “Move up, Saxton!”

“Down here!” Kira yelled to the group of citizens. “In the alleyway!” Right as she had said it, debris fell right in front of it. “Shit, Hale, I need help moving some rubble!”

“You got it handled, kid?”

“Yep! Go!” Ian said.

Hale nodded and jumped over to where Kira was, throwing the broken pieces of the buildings like they were plastic toys. Eventually, once enough space for someone to go through the alley was made, someone walked through holding a sword. “ _ Heads... _ ”  It muttered. He had a red shirt, black pants, and an eye patch, and he also had a shield on his other hand and grabbed the sword with both hands. The sword glowed red as he let out a loud scream and charged at the enemy group.

“Demoman!” Hale yelled out. “How have you been?”

“Come on, Hale, we need to get the civilians out of the city.” Kira says. “Come on, down here!”

Kira ran down the alley with Hale and the group of civilians following her. 

“Incoming!” She heard behind her. She turned around and saw the alley had been blocked by rubble again. “Okay, no turning back!”

“Ian, shoot down that UFO!” Danielle yelled out.

“We’re too separated, I can’t leave you alone!”

“I can handle it, use that thing to bomb these fucking guys!”

Ian nods. “Alright then!” The jetpack on Ian's back fired up and he flew into the air. Ian shot a missile at it and missed. “Bullets, Ian! Bullets are easier to hit!” He shot at the thing with the wrist-mounted sentry guns before it started smoking and falling towards the ground. “ _ Come on, Waid, you got this. _ ” He grabbed it and used all the force he had to direct it to the group of aliens. He let go and fired one last missile at it and it fell right into the group with an explosion killing the aliens that had been there.

Danielle sighed and sat down as Ian slowly descended and Tavish walked towards her. He leaned against the wall and looked at her. “Those guns used to be mines.”

“Thanks for letting me know.” Danielle says.

Ian walked over to her and sat down. “What’s on your mind?”

She sighed. “I’m not sure we can win this.” Danielle says. “We’re more divided right now than we are together, Kira and Hale and leading a group of survivors outside the city, Charlie’s alone looking for Pauling, Pauling’s going to our base, and the rest of the group probably died trying to hold them off.”

“That’s it.” Ian says. “Pauling’s going to the base, that’s where we were told to meet up.”

“How are we going to get there?” She looked at Tavish. “There’s only three of us.”

“Not one of ye’s gonna die here.” Tavish said. “Not today. Things could be worse, ye all have a place ye’re trying to go, so go.”

Ian placed a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever it takes.” He says. “Whatever it takes to defend this planet, we’ll do it, that’s why we’re still a team.”

She looked up at him and got up. “Whatever it takes.”

Pauling looks at the building. “Hopefully, they’re here, if they aren’t, I should be able to track their locations from here.” Pauling walks towards the front door before a gunshot happens behind her and she screams. She turns around and sees an alien dead on the ground and Charlie standing over it with a girl behind her.

“Pauling.” He says. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Where’s the rest of the team?”

“Somewhere in Starlight, they said we had to meet up here because we’re separated right now.” Charlie says. He looks at Madeline. “We need to hold our ground. All three of us.”

“I saw some mounted machine guns on the roof.” Madeline says.

“How are you even alive?” Charlie asks. “You only have a laser sight pistol.”

“How is she alive? She has nothing. The answer: Skill.”

“Seems about right.” Charlie says. “I’m already getting sleep deprived, and I’ll probably pass out in a few hours, I’ll let the rest of the team know you’re here.”

Brian leans on the wall. “Oh god.”

Ethan sits down on debris. “I haven’t fought that hard since the robot invasion.”

Brian looked at him. “Mann Co always wanted us working that hard.”

“God knows I’d never do it.”

“Well, don’t get comfortable.” Colton says. “This is far from over, I just heard from Charlie that they found Pauling and they’re near the base.”

Ethan sighs. “Alright, let’s go.”

_ The bag was lifted off Kira’s head and she looked around. The only other group member in the room was Charlie, who was also tied up. She nodded. “ _ Only part of the plan. _ ” She whispered. _

_ They were surrounded by everyone in Mann Co, including the owner. Olivia walked over and grabbed Kira by the chin. “So nice to see you again.” _

_ “Fuck you.” Kira said. “Last time I got a flu shot from you, I got the flu, fuck you.” _

_ Charlie laughed a bit. Olivia sighed. “You’re still mad about that? That’s how vaccinations work.” _

_ “That and your use of the company to try and destroy the whole city.” _

_ Olivia turned to Charlie. “What about you, boy? What are you here for, what revenge might you seek against me?” _

_ “It’s not you that I want.” Charlie says. “It’s your brother, Jason.” _

_ “What about him?” _

_ Kira looked at Charlie, remembering his surname the moment he said it. Franklin. _

_ “Your brother. He killed my sister.” _

_ Olivia started laughing. “Oh!” She said. “Your sister, Sara, was it? Oh, I remember her, such a sweet girl. Her-” _

_ “Her party was here. Her fifth birthday. I promise you, when I find your brother, he’ll wish anybody could stop what I’ll do to him.” _

_ “I don’t have a problem what you do to him.” Olivia leaned in. “My problem with you is that you’ve been murdering my employees. My. Guards.” She looked at Kira. “You and your team have constantly been fucking up my plans.” She grabbed Charlie by the neck and lifted him up. “Even though Colton may have started this, you’ve been the biggest pain in my ass since day one.” _

_ “How do you know his name?” Charlie asked. _

_ “Please, you kids are worse at hiding your identities than DC is at making movies.” She dropped Charlie. “You’ve tried to stop my plans. You broke into the room and stole my robot blueprints, you’ve attacked my employees, killed the ones your age, captured the control points and with everything you’ve done…” She takes a trigger out of her pocket and holds it in front of the two. “You still lose.” _

_ She pressed down on the trigger and a hanger holding nothing but robots started to descend. “Today, I become a god.” _

_ “You… Absolute… imbecile. You’ve doomed us all.” Kira said. _

_ Olivia turned to her. “The robots you’ve fought… They were in the testing stage. They were designed to only shoot at you.” She turns around to a desk. “I don’t have a use for you all anymore.” She turns back around holding a revolver and loads six new shots into it. “You were all very helpful in setting this up. You stole the alpha robot designs. And what’s even better? You two have brought the only thing I need to finish this whole mess. The one missing ingredient.” She smiles a way that Kira never remembered her sister doing. “The Lightning Necklace.” _

_ “Oh god fucking damn it.” Charlie said. _

_ “Must feel bad knowing that in your attempts to stop me, you only ended up helping.” She grabbed the necklace and pulled it off Charlie’s neck as it resisted by becoming heavier. then put it on hers. _

It’s time now.  _ Kira let the switchblade slide down her arm in her sleeve and caught it with her hand. She cut the rope then lunged at Olivia. Olivia grabbed Kira’s arm and spun her around.  _

_ “What was your plan? What did you expect to accomplish there?” _

_ “If you know what is good for you, you will run!” A voice shouted out. _

I recognize that voice.  _ “My own employees!” She said. She looked up at a platform and saw Ethan. “Turned against me.” _

_ “That’s what I planned to accomplish.” _

_ Olivia grabbed the robot's shoulder again. “Kill them!” She yelled. The employees started shooting as Olivia gave an electric charge to the robots turning them on. _

_ Kira grabbed the necklace and it didn’t resist, actually becoming lighter. She threw it to Charlie and it fell on his neck. _

_ “Come on…” He grabbed the ropes and they turned to ash as an electric pulse went through them. _

Pauling was using the mounted machine gun on the roof of the school as Kira and Saxton arrived.

“This is our world, they can never have it!” Charlie yelled out.

Ethan ran out of the building with Colton behind him as he flicked the switch turning on Uber Charge. 

A UFO flew over them and dropped bombs. Charlie jumped and used a glue rope to get away from the blast. “They have air strikers!”

“We’re calling those air strikers!?” Brian asked.

“You have a better name?”

Colton deployed a shield and everyone except Pauling, Hale, Tavish, and Kira got behind him. “We’re pushing them back!” Colton yelled.

Charlie formed an electric axe with his hand. “Soldier, rocket jump me!” Charlie jumped and Ethan fired a rocket below him making Charlie fly high into the air. He held the axe above him as lightning from the sky struck it. He smashed it into the ground as his eyes, weapons, and axe glowed in the darkness. An electric wave was fired in all directions, burning the ground and turning everyone nearby to ash. “Move up! I’ve got you all crit charged!”

Everybody’s weapons glowed the color of Charlie’s eyes as electricity surged from them.

“I can’t do this for too long!” Charlie yelled out. “Do what you can and do it quickly!”

Everybody kept shooting and Charlie stayed behind everyone. Pauling jumped from the second floor and started using the laser sight pistol as that, too, was crit charged.

_ Nosebleed… Fuck.  _ “Everybody, just a few more seconds!” Charlie yelled out. After a few more seconds, the guns returned to normal as Charlie gripped his forehead in pain and fell to the ground. 

Everybody ran over as Danielle kept looking out. “That’s all of them!”

Danielle walked over to the rest of the group.

“Charlie, you alright?” Colton asked.

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “Just what happens when you overuse the necklaces.” He looked up. “Watch out!”

A UFO flew over them and floated still in the air as a loud noise emerged from it and green energy was forming near the bottom. The sound stopped and a green laser stood between it and the building for just a second and when it disappeared, the building exploded.

“Holy shit!” The entire team yelled, startled.

“No!” Danielle yelled. “Not the beers!”

“Don’t worry lad, I got some more.” Tavish held two in his hands.

Danielle walked over and grabbed one, popping the lid off and drinking from it.

Colton sighed and turned to Charlie. “Still can’t believe I let her start drinking.”

Charlie turned to him. “Dude, she’s a goddamn alcoholic.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Guys, I’ve been working on something and it might help with the… Situation.” Ian says. “I have a plan. They smack us, we’re gonna fucking shoot them.”

Danielle looks at him. She drops the bottle on the ground and wipes her mouth barely able to keep her balance. “I like where this go.”

“Aaand she’s fucking drunk. She only drank half the bottle.”

Danielle woke up with a splitting headache. She slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position on the bed. “God… Now I know what a hangover feels like…”

“Really?” Colton asked. “You’re an alcoholic, how do you  _ not _ know what a hangover feels like?”

She turns to him. “I don’t even know.” She took her hand off her forehead. “Where are we?”

“Canada. Same building Charlie and Brian saw the train coming down.” Colton got out of the chair. “Take a while to get comfortable, we’re leaving in a bit.” Colton steps out of the room and closes the door behind him.

The building looked like a facility of some sort, almost like Black Mesa. Danielle got up.  _ Guessing we’ll be here a while, might wanna familiarize myself with the place. _

_ The year was 1980, in Washington DC. Danielle sat in her room on her phone until she heard the door behind her open. She paused the video she was watching and turned to it. Her brother stood there at the door. “I got a job offer down in Starlight City. We’re going to have to leave the family behind.” _

_ Danielle got off the bed. “I know. I overheard the conversation with you and Charlie. How much are we in for?” _

_ “Nine million.” Colton said. _

_ “Sign me up.” Danielle says. _

_ “Glad to still have you with me.” _

Danielle opened room 4, the room where Charlie stayed. He laid there in bed asleep until she turned the light on. He woke up with a groan, but he already knew who came in as he rubbed his eyes. “What do you need, Danny?”

“I just wanna talk.” She sat down in a chair.

Charlie looked at her messy, short, light brown hair then at her green eyes. “I’m guessing it’s the same as it was before.”

“Wait, what did you do to your hair?”

Charlie looked confused for a second then remembered the line of red he’d done. “Oh, this was just a dare from Ian.”

“You always do them, don’t you?”

“I always do ‘em.” Charlie yawned and got up from the bed. “It’s alright if you wanna talk about the same thing from before, after you saved us in Coal Town, the least I can do is tell you what you want to know.” Charlie looked out the window. “Alright, what do you wanna know?”

Danielle thought for a second. “Why did you… Why did you do that to Jason?”

Charlie chuckled for a second. “Well, I had a sister. Her name was Sara. On her sixth birthday, she was murdered and the murder put in some fuckin’ dog costume where… I also died.”

“Wait, but you’re here now.” Danielle says. “If you’re dead, you shouldn’t be here, right?”

Charlie laughs for a second then looks at her. “You’re telling me you’ve never been resurrected by Colton?”

She sighed. “Yes, I have, but isn’t this before Fortress Frontline?”

“Simple, Danny.” He sighed. “I- I sold my soul to Satan, in return, I could keep living until I die again, Colton’s been helping me break that rule but…”

Danielle shrugged. “What?”

Charlie sighed. “ this month, Satan will show up and he’ll want me to kill the rest of the team.”

“What?”

“He told me ‘Some time in May 1983, you’ll be forced to kill the rest of your team. You know when it happens.’”

“You wouldn’t actually do it, right?”

“Well, I was six, I didn’t think I would actually have a connection to the rest of the team, unlike I actually do.” Charlie turned to Danielle. “I’m scared. I’m scared of him, and what he’ll do.”

Danielle smiled. “Charlie Franklin, scared? I call bullshit.”

“Danny, you don’t get it he is more powerful than everyone on this team.”

“So were the robots. So was Olivia, so are the Aliens, and guess what. We’ve killed Olivia, destroyed the robots and we’re about to kill every single one of those alien motherfuckers. This is nothing you should be scared of and I’ll be with you every step of the way until I see that red-colored fuckboy die.”

Charlie nodded. “We’ll kill all of them.”

“Okay, listen.” Colton says over the speakers. “The plan is a hit ‘n’ run. We’re going up there and we’re hitting them with everything we’ve got, then we go back.”

Charlie smiled. “This’ll be fun.”

“Please get to the hanger.”

“Where is that?” Danielle asked.

“Come with me, I’ll show ya’.”

Dannielle followed Charlie to the hanger room where a spaceship sat there, vacant.

“Great, you two are here.” Ian said. “Just the two we were waiting for since everybody else was already down here.”

Charlie nods. “What do you have for us?” He asked.

Ian walked over to a wall and pulled an oxygen tank off a desk. “Oxygen tanks and Oxygen Masks, the mask are like helmets but since we don’t have the time to make suits for this shit, we’re keeping it simple. The Australium in our blood will keep us all warm.”

“Hold up.” Danielle said.

“I also have the Long Jump module.” Ian starts. 

“Australium  _ in _ our blood?” She turned to Charlie and he just shrugged. “When the actual f-”

“We don’t know much about the spaceship up there, but Dannielle will be tasked with blowing it up if she can get in.” Ian handed the LJM to Charlie. “These will let you jump  _ much _ farther in areas with any gravity, and will let you fly in areas with no gravity.” Ian turns around and grabs a white, long plastic wristband. “This is connected to your earpieces, which allows you to turn on or off your microphone by swiping left or white.” Ian hands one out to every member of the team.

Charlie nods. “Sounds good, let’s go.”

Colton walks onto the ship as everyone follows. Colton sits down on the co-pilot seat while Ian sits in the pilot seat. “Danielle, you might wanna go with someone else when you enter that ship.”

“No, fuck that.” Danielle says, calmly. “I’ll do it alone.”

“Not very social?” Charlie asked.

Danielle smiled. “No. I’m not very social.”

“We’re taking off.” Ian says. “How do you all feel about Aperture Science?”

“The fuck is Aperture Science?”

“Ah, I think they’re a certain company.”

“Then why the hell do they have Science in the name?”

“I dunno.”

“Pretty fuckin’ stupid.”

“Charlie.” Colton says. “Wanna talk about your father?”

“No, I don’t want to talk about that abusive dickhead.” Charlie says. “Well, he wasn’t entirely abusive, only when he was drunk.”

“Your father was abusive?” Ethan asked.

“Yep.” Charlie said. “I went back and murdered that dickhead. Did the same to my Mom too.” Charlie sighed. “I’ll be honest, sometimes, I regret murdering them, but I did it.”

“Was that before or after Audric died in the crash?” Brian asked. 

“After the robot war.” Charlie says. “They were horrible people, they paid to have my-” Charlie looked out the window for a second. “Holy fuck.” 

Everyone looked out the windows. 

Danielle looked right at the sun. “Holy shit, this looks…” She looked away and closed her eyes. “It burns so goddamn much, but it looks beautiful.” She took her phone out and took a picture.

“ _ Christ. _ ” Charlie muttered. 

“There it is.” Ian said. “That there, is what we’re targeting.”

The ship was a large UFO with stationary rocks standing around it.

“From the looks of it, we could use those rocks as cover.” Colton says. “That, or we could use them to be highly mobile targets by jumping off of them.”

“How do you know they won’t move too?” Danielle asks.

“They probably will.” Colton responds. “So, you want to see what we can find out before we do anything or make a grand entrance?”

“I’ll take the grand entrance.” Charlie says. “Just means more fun for me.”

“Wait, we need to know about whatever we can.” Kira says. “I’ll look around the outside of the ship, you wait here.” Kira gets up from her seat and grabs the LJM, Oxygen tank, and Oxygen Mask. She closes the hanger door behind her then opens the one in front of her. She crawls out onto the roof of the ship and jumps towards the UFO, grabbing onto the side of it. Moving herself towards the other side of it, she reloads her revolver. She moved her gun, as the bullets would only stay stationary, and shoved them aside as she put six more in. She got to the other side. There was a green energy field as human-like people walked around in it, beating aliens.

“Okay.” She took a picture with her phone. “What I see here, a group of human enslaved a species of aliens.”

“Pretty large assumptions.” Colton says. “Possible though, if it weren’t for one thing.” He took a breath. “Those aren’t humans. NASA would’ve said something about enslaving an entire species.”

“Those aren't humans.” Ian said.

“What?” Colton asked.

“They’re Sylivian.” 

“That makes sense.” Kira says. “It’s sick what they’re doing, it’s pretty much torture.”

“I don’t think it’s sick.” Charlie says. “If we found an entirely new race who we knew we could enslave to fulfill  _ our _ goals and do  _ our _ work for us, wouldn’t we do the exact same goddamn thing?”

Kira sighed. “The sad thing is, we probably would.” She touched the energy field. “Okay, I can’t push my hand through this thing, we might have to move at a specific speed to move through. Either that or they turn it off before those ships leave, they have a different way of getting in or out, and the ship has gravity in it.”

“Alright.” Ian said. “I think we’re ready, Ensley, stay where you are, we need to see if your theory is correct. The rest of us…” Ian turned to Danielle. “It’s time to make ourselves known.”

“Let’s go.”

Everyone gets up and walks into the airlock room. They grab the LJM, Oxygen Tanks and Masks.

“Wait,” Danielle says. “What about the ship?”

“It’s a bit away, they might not notice it.” Ian says. “If they do, then we’re fucked.”

Everyone jumps out of the ship and starts to shoot at the UFO. “We gotta get their attention!”

“You got it alright.” Kira says. Ships flew through the energy field. “Looks like I was right. You have to move at a specific speed to get through.”

“Fantastic.” Charlie said as he ran onto a rock. He jumped, fired a glue rope at one of the ships and threw it into a rock. The rock broke apart and the pieces flew away. “Oh,  _ now _ the rocks move!”

“Something’s keeping them from moving, use them!” Colton says.

Kira walks onto the roof of the ship and Iron sights ships, bullets being surprisingly effective.

“Why is Kira the only one on the team to use Iron Sights?” Charlie asked.

“Because I’m not an experienced shooter!” Kira said. “There’s a reason I have the most ammo as everyone on the team!”

“Good luck using a Nintendo Switchblade on these fuckers!”

Danielle grabbed onto one of the ships as it flew by, by this point, she’d done it to seven other ships. She fired a single sticky bomb onto it and let go, using the LJM to stop herself. She sighed. “Kaboom.”

“What the fu-” Before Charlie could finish, eight ships just exploded. “Holy shit.”

“That’s what a detonator does!” Danielle yells. “I’m still fucking drunk!”

“Go fucking sober for a day, I dare you.” Colton says.

“Sorry bro, not happening!”

“Once we’ve got them to a handleable situation, we’ll get you in.” Ian says. The wrist-mounted sentry guns fired at ships, destroying them almost instantly. Colton flew over and uber charged Ian.

“Go crazy, Waid!”

Brian jumped off a rock and fired a blue glowing arrow, that went through one ship, then two, then five. Each one blew up as the arrow left a trail of red behind it that slowly faded away.

“Holy shit, what was that!?” Ethan asked.

“Collateral Arrow. Melts straight through a target, the tip is so goddamn hot, it turned blue.”

“How many fuckin’ arrows do you have?” Charlie asked.

“Collateral, Fire, Ice, Poison, Grapple, Electric, Explosive, Normal and Gas.” Brian says. “So about ten.”

“Gas?”

“Mustard Gas.”

Charlie laughed. “Christ.” Charlie fired a blast of lightning at a ship.

“I’m confused, does your necklace have the power of Lightning or Electricity?” Colton asked. “They’re both different things.”

“It does both.” Charlie said. “I’m a child, much less attractive, far less muscular, more asshole version of Thor.”

“Let’s hope we don’t get sued by Marvel.” Zachary says.

“I have a pair of glue shooters and a lightning necklace, I can run along walls as long as I maintain the speed I do it, we’re  _ definitely _ getting sued by Marvel.”

“May I mention I can only airblast these things into rocks. I’m damn near worthless.” Zachary jokes.

“Good luck.” Charlie says.

Kira kicks the roof of one of the ships breaking the green glass, ripping one of the aliens out. “Yeah, Zachary, try the roof of these! Very beneficial.”

“Danielle, I think we have the situation under control.” Ian says. “Go in and blow that thing to shit.”

“Got it.”

Charlie jumped off one of the ships, using the glue shooter to throw it onto the main, large ship. He ran along the large one and jumped up, cutting one in half with a sword formed from the necklace. He fired a glue rope at one of them as the sword turned into an axe. Once he neared melee range of it, he smashed the axe into it, destroying multiple ships as the electricity flowed through space. “They don’t stand a fuckin’ chance!”

Charlie started to fly away before someone grabbed his hand, stopping him. He turned around and Danielle was there.

She sighed. “Can you come with me?” The rest of the team suddenly went quiet. Danielle didn’t notice but Charlie did, and he knew exactly why.

“Didn’t you say you’d do it alone?” Charlie asked, rhetorically

“Yeah but…” She turned to the ship and back. “I don’t like being alone. I find it uncomfortable. And if I go in there alone, I’ll probably die.” She started to pull Charlie in. “Come on.”

Charlie turned to the rest of the team. “Alright.”

The two went to the front of the ship, just where Kira was earlier. “Alright, remember,” Charlie said. “We have to go at a specific speed.”

“How do we go that fast?”

Charlie looked at her.

“No.”

“You got a better idea?”

She sighed again. “Fine. Just don’t kill us, al-”

“I’ve done it before. The worse you’ll experience is a broken rib.”

Danielle groaned. “Fantastic.”

Another ship flew out. “You’re gonna want to hold on tight.” Charlie says. Danielle grabbed onto Charlie, holding as tight as she could. Charlie fired a rope at the ship which was moving fast enough to go through. The ship carried the two at its exact speed and Charlie let go. He fired another rope at the side of the large ship taking him back to the front after having just been at the back. They flew through the energy shield landing on the ground.

Danielle was heavily breathing, not really use to going at that speed, even after doing countless sticky jumps, meanwhile, Charlie was already shooting at the Sylivians on the ship. 

“Demo, over here!” Charlie said as he hid behind a metal, gray box. 

Danielle got off the ground and ran to him. “There’s a lot of technology on the ship, you think you can clear out the room using it?”

“In the end, the thing they made to help them will only hurt them.” Charlie jumped out from behind the box. The screens on the wall started to glow blue before electricity tore through them, vaporizing anyone near them. “I think that’s it for now.” The two take off the Oxygen masks.

“Alright,” Danielle says. “I’ll let the rest of the team know we’re in.”

“Oh, they already know.” Charlie says with a smile.

“How?” Charlie’s smile widens as she looks at the wrist pad. “Oh, you asshole!”

“Yeah, I knew our microphones were on.” Everybody starts laughing.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think Charlie knew!” Ethan says.

“Fuck you.” Danielle says.

The ship had four floors, with stairs leading to each one of them.

“Easily angered, I see.” Charlie starts walking up the stairs. “Well, you wanna blow this damn thing to hell or you wanna get mad some more?” He chuckles.

Danielle sighs. “Let’s blow up a spaceship.”

_ Kira roamed through the halls of Mann Co until the saw two guards standing there. A Soldier and a Heavy. Kira walks up to them as she takes the switchblade from her pocket. She slits one of their throats and before the other could react, they got a knife to the back. She didn’t even bother disguising again as what she was looking for was just around the corner. _

_ She walked towards the door that had the sign ‘ _ _ BLUEPRINTS’ _ _ over it. She tried turning the doorknob but it was locked.  _ Alright.  _ She looked at the vent next to it. She walked over to the Soldier’s body and took the crowbar from him. She put it through the vent cover and tore it off. She crawled in. Once she got to the other side, she broke the vent cover with the crowbar and crawled through, dropping the crowbar on the ground as she landed. _

_ She walked over to the stack of folders, each one had a different label. ‘ _ _ BUILDING BLUEPRINTS, CITY MAPS, MANN CO. LOCATIONS, BILLING HISTORY, EMPLOYEES, CHILD SLAVES _ _ ’ and the one Kira was looking for. ‘ _ _ ROBOT BLUEPRINTS. _ _ ’ Kira picked it up the under it noticed another folder. She picked it up and swiped another piece of paper off it, revealing the name of the folder. ‘ _ _ FORTRESS FRONTLINE MEMBERS _ _ ’. She opened the folder for there to be exactly nine pages. Each page went into detail about their history, when they joined the team, their age, names, and living spaces. _

Christ.  _ Kira grabbed the two folders and turned around just as the door exploded. Her glasses flew off her face as she dropped the folders and the papers fell out of them. _

_ Kira grabbed her glasses before she heard a familiar voice. “I’ve got your friends.” They said. _

_ Kira put the glasses back on before she saw Olivia right in front of her holding the crowbar. The first swing tore through her skin, the second one did the same, and the third one knocked Kira unconscious. _

“We’ve got most of the bombs planted.” Danielle says. “We just need to get to the main room, close the energy shield and plant bombs in the main room.” __

“Alright.” Ian says. “Take your time, I’m enjoying blowing these alien ships up.”

“Alright.” Danielle says. She walked out of the room she was in to immediately see Charlie throw someone into the wall.

“It seems I’m out of patience and you’re out of people.” Charlie says. He forms an electric sword and plunges it through the chest of the Sylivian. “Poor bastards, they have no form of defense.”

“Yeah…” Danielle says. “Let’s-” Before she could finish talking, Soldiers burst out of the one of the rooms, most of them focusing on Charlie, one focusing on Danielle.

He grabbed her by the neck and kicked the sticky bomb launcher while the rest of the soldiers tried to restrain Charlie. Danielle tried to get him off but knew she couldn’t. She felt how unstable the railing was. She grabbed it and pulled, with it immediately breaking.

“Danny!”

“What’s happening?” Colton asked. “Charlie!”

She fell to the bottom floor, landing on her leg with a painful scream following. She looked up and saw only someone’s walking towards her. Before looking any higher, Danielle drew her sword and they grabbed her hand, immediately stabbing her in the palm, then the chest, then making a deep cut on her cheek before dropping the bloodied knife on the ground. Danielle laying on the ground defenseless as he grabbed her collar and dragged her to the boxes they were at before.

He sat her against them then grabbed the hand that he stabbed, breaking each finger one by one. She spits blood at him. “Scout will fucking kill you.”

“I know your friend, Charlie will try.”

“How do you know his name?”

“My… Employers have told me. This is a host body, I can take control of anybody I wish at will. I know the rest of your team can hear me so I have one thing to tell you.” He leaned in close to Danielle’s ear. “ Prepare for unforeseen consequences. ”

Charlie jumped down and stabbed him in the chest before crouching down to Danielle. “That wound looks bad, we need to get you to Colton.”

“We can’t.” Danielle said. “Not yet.” Charlie turned around to the shield as a ship crashed into the room they were in and exploded. “The shield won’t let us through. We have to get to the top floor.”

“Guys, what’s happening?” Ian asked.

“Danielle was stabbed, and her fingers are broken.” Charlie says.

“And my leg.” She says. “I’ll be fine, we’ll finish the mission before we do anything.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Colton says.

“Alright.” Charlie says. “I’ll leave you behind the boxes and turn off the shield.”

Danielle turns off her microphone with a swipe then takes Charlie’s hand, turning off his. “I won’t let you go alone.”

“You’re too inj-”

Before Charlie could even finish his thought, Danielle pulled him in and kissed him. After a second she stopped. “I refuse to let you go there alone.”

Charlie didn’t say a word, just stared at her, surprised, still trying to comprehend what just happened. Danielle pulled him in again, kissing while hugging him. Once she stopped the kiss, she kept hugging. “You’re not leaving without me.”

Charlie stared her in her green eyes and she stared into his blue eyes. He nodded. “I won’t leave you here.” Charlie helped her up, not before picking up the soldier’s M16 Assault Rifle. “I’ll call this bad boy the American Pride.”

Ian fired off more missiles. “Shit, what the hell happened to them?”

“They’re both on mute right now!” Colton said. “The heart monitor says they’re both alive, we just need to hold out long enough to see them live!”

Brian fired off another Collateral Arrow. “Yeah? Well, I’m running out of arrows and they’re  _ not _ running out of ships!”

“Just a little bit longer!” Ethan yells out. “Keep shooting and we’ll see tomorrow!”

“See tomorrow!?” Kira yelled. “Motherfucker, we’re about to die! The Medigun got shot and fucking exploded, we’re running out of ammo, Charlie and Danielle are probably dead and we have nowhere to go until the big ship is destroyed!”

_ Charlie roamed the woods, searching for the one person who called him to action until he found him. “Colton, why do you want me so far from home?” _

_ “You know why.” Colton said. “Remember our phone call?” _

_ Charlie looked back then at him again. “You’re serious? We’re gonna kill the head of a company?” _

_ “You in or not?” _

_ Charlie smiled. “Hell yes.” _

_ Colton dropped a bag onto the ground. The bag had multiple guns in it but Colton took out two. A Lever Action Shotgun, and a Semi-Automatic Pistol. “These are your weapons, Scout.” Colton handed Charlie the shotgun, barrel facing away from Charlie. _

_ He smiled and took the gun. Charlie took a second to inspect the gun then pushed down on the lever pushing out an empty shell then pulled on it. “Where’d you get these?” _

_ “Mann Co’s gun suppliers. We may kill their leader but they’ll sell anything as long as their getting paid.” Colton grabbed the bag again. “Come on, we gotta get to Starlight.” _

_ Charlie looked up at one of the trees, seeing a body he remembered all too well. _

_ “Christ.” Colton said. “I didn’t know people hung themselves here.” _

_ “I did.” Charlie says. “If you know someone who killed themselves in Starlight or New York, this’ll be the place to find them.” _

_ “Alright, I’d rather not spend too much more time here, let’s go.” _

_ Charlie nods. “Sure. I’m right behind ya’.” _

Danielle leans on the wall while Charlie fiddles with the computer. “Put the bombs down, we can’t stay here forever.”

“Way ahead of you.” Danielle starts placing down more sticky bombs while Charlie continues.

“Got it.” He says. “I can turn off the shield now but you’ll need your Oxygen mask.”

“I can’t.” She says. “I can only use one hand at the moment.”

Charlie puts his on. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” He takes her mask from her side and straps it onto her face. Charlie turns on his mic. “We’ve got all the bombs set, we’re about to turn off the shield, we’re on our way out.”

“If there are any medical supplies, find them, the medigun exploded.” Colton says. “We’ll buy you time, just do what you need to.”

“Alright.” Charlie picks Danielle up from the legs and carries her onto a table.

“You know where supplies are?” She asked as he took her mask off.

“I don’t, just guessing I’ll find something in here.” He opened one of the cabinets. “Christ, I am so goddamn lucky today.” He took the first aid kit out and got to Danielle. “There’s morphine in this thing, bandages, alcohol, and…” He takes out a white cotton ball and tape. “This shit.”

Charlie took the cotton ball and put alcohol on it before walking over to Danielle, putting the cotton ball on the cut on her cheek and taping it on. “I know it burns, but it’ll help.”

“If  _ this _ gets me drunk, at least I can say I got drunk during medical attention.”

Charlie injects the morphine and puts the bandages around her chest. “That should stop blood loss.” Charlie put the mask back on her face and turned off the shield. “Alright, come on.” He picked her up and left the room.

_ It was 1978, Colton was Eleven years old as he walked home, he noticed a girl fall over in an alleyway. “Oh, hey!” He took his headphones off and walked to her. “Are uh… Are you okay.” _

_ The girl turned to him. She had long brown hair that looked like it had only been cut some time at the beginning of the year. Her hair was messy, and her eyes were green, her face being covered in dirt. She nodded. _

_ “Are you homeless?” Colton asked. Again, she nodded. “Alright.” He starts. “My mother, she has a medical condition where she’s unable to have more children, and she really doesn’t want to pay for an adoption, specifically. Just the adoption specifically.” He looked at the girl and she looked confused. “I know, it’s kinda dumb, but she wants a second child.” Colton saw the girl’s face light up right as he said it. “I think I have a home for you.” Colton smiled. “What's your name?” _

_ She stood there for a second before she said it. “Danielle.” _

Charlie let Danielle move on her own once they’d gotten outside back to Space. “Let’s finish the job.” Danielle said.

“What about the Sticky Bomb Launcher?” Charlie asked.

“I have a secondary detonator.” Danielle answers. “Come on!”

“Alright.” Charlie got out of the ship while the rest of the team got into Ian’s ship. Danielle grabbed Charlie hand and took him to the back of the ship, which was in front of Ian’s. 

“We’re not done yet.”

“We’re about to be.”

Danielle took the detonator from her back pocket and was about to press down on the button before Danielle handed it to Charlie. “You do it.” She grabbed one of Charlie’s hands and gave it to him.

Charlie nodded and Danielle turned to the ship, holding Charlie close. Charlie pressed down on the button and the ship exploded. Danielle covered her eyes with her arm. “Jesus, that’s as bright as the goddamn sun.”

“There are still more aliens!” Ian says. “Get on the ship, we’re almost out of fuel!”

Charlie grabbed Danielle’s arm. “Let’s go.” He pulled her to the ship where they took off the Oxygen Masks, Oxygen Tanks, and LJMs.

“Wish I could’ve stayed there.” Danielle says. “Somewhere where I don’t have to worry about my fucking leg.”

“Jesus,” Kira says. “You look like shit.”

“I feel like it too.” Danielle says. “It’s at least good to know I won’t die at this moment in time because Charlie knows basic medical skills.”

“Not today, Danny.” Charlie says. “Not today.”

“Alright, I’m taking this damn ship back home before the rest of the surviving aliens get back to us.” Ian says. 

“Fantastic.” Colton says. 

The ship starts flying to Earth before a loud sound happens.

“...shit.” Ian says. “We’re hit.”

“God fuckin’ damn it.” Charlie says.

“Grab onto something!” Ian says.

The ship crashes into the ground at an angle letting it slide across the ground and flipping.

_ “Come on!” Charlie yelled. “If we go this way, we’ll be able to circle around back to the rest of the team!” Charlie turned the corner and gets hit by a baseball bat, and before he could do anything, grabbed by the neck and put in a chokehold. _

_ Kira takes the switchblade from her pocket and tried to stab Olivia. Olivia grabbed Kira’s hand, letting go of Charlie, and took the knife away, throwing it a few feet away. She elbowed Kira in the rib, turned around and stabbed Charlie with a butterfly knife. Kira ran once she saw a group of soldiers coming. She took the necklace off Charlie’s neck, once again, the necklace resisted but still came off. _

_ “You would’ve made for one hell of a Scout working for me.” She said. “This whole… Team Fortress thing… there have been four groups now, you being the fourth.” She smiled. “But it’s going to end. There won’t be any more teams. We’re going to hunt them together.” She put the knife to Charlie’s neck as it started to glow. “One way or another.” _

_ “What makes you think I’ll work with you?” _

_ “I can put you into stasis.” She sighed. “Or… I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning.” _

_ “You sound like-” _

_ “Our mutual friend?” Olivia asked. “I know about him. He’s… My employer. He kept me the rank I have. He helped me. He made her kill half of the Teufort Nine.” _

_ Before Charlie could say anything or piece it all together, a soldier walks towards the two. “Ensly got away.” _

_ Olivia sighed. “Employee…” She starts. “I am many things. I am young, I am understanding, I’m insane, but one thing I’m not…” _

_ She grabs the soldier by the neck and rips off a necklace that wasn’t visible to either of them, revealing the soldier was Kira. “Is stupid.” _

_ “How did you know?” She asked. _

_ “My soldiers are trained specifically to deal with the nine of you, and I know you too well to think that you would leave your teammate behind after a year and two months or working together.” _

_ Kira punches Olivia in the nose and jumps towards Charlie’s necklace and puts it on her own neck. She turns around and Olivia grabs Kira without noticing the necklace and puts her in a chokehold. _

Everything is going exactly as planned… _ Kira held her hand near her lung and positioned herself to where she knew Olivia’s heart would be behind her own lung and the sword formed in the right spot.  _

_ Olivia let go of Kira and she pulled the sword out. Kira covered the wound as the sword hit the ground and disappeared. _

_ “I did not think…” Olivia started. “That the person I die to… Would be my own sister who made a fake last name…” _

_ “I didn’t think I’d have to stab myself to do it.” Kira says. She takes the necklace out then throws it to Charlie, picking up her own. Soldiers run towards the area and, leaving Charlie and Kira outnumbered while weakened. They all explode before they could even fire a single shot. _

_ Danielle jumps down. “Are you two alright?” She looks at Olivia’s body. “Jesus, you got her?” _

_ “Kira did it.” Charlie says. “She took a sword and stabbed herself to kill Olivia.” _

_ “Jesus, Kira, you’re hardcore.” Danielle says. “Come on, Colton will get you all patched up.” _

_ “Thank god you showed up now.” Kira said. “If you’d shown up a second later, those soldiers could’ve killed us.” _

_ “Don’t mention it.” Danielle winked. _

Kira woke up in front of the ship. Her vision was blurred but she could tell the ship was wrecked and burning. She felt the area around her, with everything being dark and blurred. She felt her glasses and put them on. One of the lenses had dirt on them and she wiped it away.

Everybody had fallen out of the ship, looked injured but alive. All that was around Kira was miles of grass, bushes, flowers, and trees. She pushed herself off the ground and the closest person was Danielle. Kira shook her trying to wake her up. Danielle looked up at Kira. Her face was covered in dirt and grass and there was a first-degree burn near her eye.

“Where are we?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” Kira said. “Everyone else is alive, but we’re probably stranded.”

Everyone else started to get up too. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ.” Charlie said. “We’re not going back up there in… Forever.”

“Alright,” Ian says. “I see a final squad of Alien Ground Soldiers off in the distance, if we can survive this, we’ll go home perfectly safe.”

Danielle checked her ammo. “I don’t have much ammo left.”

“None of us do.” Ethan said.

“I think you all have enough to take one more wave of these things.” Colton says.

Charlie cocks his shotgun. “Let’s hope so.” He starts walking towards the foot soldiers, while the rest of the team gets up and does the same.

The aliens start shooting and Charlie starts taking the shots. He starts running, ignoring the bullets that fly in his direction, forming an axe in his hand and smashing it into the ground.

“They’re behind us!” Danielle says.

“They’re coming from every direction!” Kira responds.

“Back to back!” Ethan yells. “Back to back!”

“Just like January!” Charlie yells. 

They all go into a circle formation and start shooting, moving just enough to avoid incoming lasers. Charlie fires a blast of electricity out vaporizing anyone hit by it.

“Suppressive fire!” Colton yells. He starts spraying with his TEC-19, stabbing anybody who gets too close with the UberSaw, which no longer raised his uber percentage due to the destruction of the medigun. Zachary did the same with his flamethrower, while Ethan kept using his shotgun as he’d already run out of Rocket Launcher ammo. Danielle didn’t have any ammo left anymore, as she’d just used it. Ian used the only Wrist-Mounted Sentry he had. Kira only hip fired with her revolver which was quickly being depleted of its ammo. Brian used every arrow type he had.

“Anybody else think that Believer would go great over when we do this?” Ethan asked.

“You listen to that?” Kira asked.

“Yeah, I think it goes great over when we did this in Coal Town!” Charlie says. “That’s undeniable!”

“Yeah, okay!” Danielle says.

_ Colton finished healing Kira as another wave of robots came through. “Olivia is dead, this might be the last wave of robots, let’s get this shit done!” _

_ “Yeah!” Charlie said. “I have had enough robots for an entire lifetime!” _

_ The group walks down to where the robots come from. _

_ “Uh, guys.” Pauling said over the microphone. “This time, it’s not robots.” _

_ “What is it?” Ian asked. _

_ “Tank!” Danielle yelled out. _

_ The tank had just broken through a wall of wooden planks nailed to the wall and fired a single round at them. “Find something to hide behind!” Ian said. “The sentry might have it co-” Before Ian could finish his sentence, the sentry gun was hit by another shell and exploded. “Well shit.” _

_ “Use your goddamn heads!” Colton said. “This is a tank, bullet’s won’t do the job, but we’ve got a few people who have something better than a bullet.” _

_ “I like where this is going!” Danielle said. She got out from behind the wall and fired a grenade that exploded upon hitting the tank. It appeared to have not done anything to it. _

_ “Wait, I know the blueprint for this!” Kira yelled. “You have to hit it from the back with any form of explosive to deal damage! You’ll have to hit it ten times!” _

_ Danielle got behind the wall again as a shell flew right past her. “How do we do that?” _

_ “Use aggro!” Ian said. “One of you takes it’s attention, the other shoots at it from behind!” _

_ “It’s attention is already on me!” Danielle said. “Ethan, light it up!” _

_ Ethan got out from behind a shed and fired a rocket at it’s back and the tank rotated towards Ethan. Ethan got behind the wall as Danielle fired another grenade. _

_ “Oh, this’ll be easy!”  _

_ Kira went out from behind the wall and threw a sapper onto it. “That should make the job easier than it already is!” _

_ At the end of the day, the sun had started to rise. The group stood above broken metal and loose bolts. Each of them felt satisfied. Many had died, but today, the job was done. Today, they’d get paid but more importantly, they’d avenged everyone who had died. They could call themselves Fortress Frontline. _

After a while, the combat had died down and the dark sky had stayed, the entire team went home. Everything had still been in wreckage but citizens had returned. They felt safe now that the invaders were gone. Colton walked down the street into a coffee shop. 

“Hey,” Someone said. “Thanks again for clearing out the aliens, god knows nobody actually thought anything like this could’ve happened, much less a group of children would protect us.”

“We’re just doing out job.” Colton said. “Keeping everyone safe.” He got a coffee and sat down next to Brian who had already been in the shop. “Hey, Brian, do you know where Charlie and Danielle are? Danielle packed her stuff and left this morning.”

Brian swallowed the coffee in his mouth. “I saw her with Charlie earlier.” He smiled. “I think there's something you all don’t know.”

“I think I know what that is.” Colton said. “If she’s moving in with him, then there isn’t much more I need to come to that conclusion.”

“As expected.” Brian took another sip. “You ever think that Jason will return?”

“No.” Colton said. “Charlie literally tore him from limb to limb. Nobody will come back from that.”

“You think what you will, he’ll find a way.”

Colton took a sip. “I’m gonna meet up with Ian now, try and get stuff fixed. See you later man.”

“See you later, Doc.” Brian says. Colton walks out of the store and Brian watches him walk down the street. “ _ It wasn’t those two I was talking about. _ ”

Charlie and Danielle sat on a cliff that had a railing on it, as it was one of Starlight’s viewpoints. They watched the city holding hands.

“So…” Charlie starts. “Let’s talk about that kiss.”

Danielle smiled. “Well, you’re exceedingly bad at hiding secrets and I could tell you liked me.”

“Was I that bad?”

“Yeah, you’re that bad with secrets,” Danielle says. “I knew you’d never say anything, and if I’m honest, I expected to die on that ship.” She looked at Charlie and he looked back. “When I kissed you, I expected it’d be the last thing I’d do. Then, you took me from there and got me medical attention.”

“Well, you’re moving in, so…” Charlie stopped. “I don’t really know what else to say.”

Danielle smiled. “I guess I should finish packing.”

“I can get you home quicker.” Charlie said. “You wanna see things the way I do every day?”

“You’re taking me home with the glue shooters?”

“Yep.” Charlie said. “That’s how I’m doing it.”

Danielle grabbed onto Charlie. “Let’s go.” Charlie fired a glue rope and Danielle held on tight while Charlie swang from rope to rope.

(Writer's Note: I'm sure you know this was written _long_ before Robot War, and if you didn't, well, you do now. I must say, I regret writing this before Robot War because the fact that I don't have any motivation to rewrite this means it was either that I never got to continue the series, or force myself to write it, which was something I didn't want to do. I am not proud of how this came out anymore, and if anybody wants to rewrite this or Brotherhood of Arms, then be my guest. _Let's be honest, nobody cares enough about TF3 to rewrite this piece of shi-_ )


End file.
